


Hakuna Matata

by nobetterpicture



Series: SASO 2016 Fills [2]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Light Angst, M/M, POV Second Person, Prince of Tennis spoilers...sorta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-07-10 16:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6995269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nobetterpicture/pseuds/nobetterpicture
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for SASO 2016 Bonus Round 1 prompt "Remember when Koganei talked Mitobe into playing doubles tennis with him, just for fun? (Do you remember if they could convince Hyuuga and Kiyoshi to play against them?)"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hakuna Matata

**Author's Note:**

> Mmmmm okay so this fic deserves a little explanation first. Ever since watching KnB, I developed this head canon that Koganei Shinji is actually Kikumaru Eiji (from the Prince of Tennis) grown up. They were both born in November, played tennis in middle school, both have cat characteristics, etc...it just connected them in my head.
> 
> Because of this Koganei's tennis background has been tweaked to be the same as Kikumaru's (which is a lot different than what we know of Koganei's is) and because this is happening in high school, the events of the Prince of Tennis are /over/ MEANING there are some spoilers if you know anything about Kikumaru from the Prince of Tennis. 
> 
> Also!This was written in 2nd person POV because I believe it best suits Mitobe as a character and I hope you all get that feel as well!

You never ask about it because (you think) when he’s ready, he’ll tell you.

You remember the first day you met, how he was dressed in a dirty tennis uniform and how his eyes looked a little swollen from crying. But the contrasting smile on his face, the actual excitement in his voice when he asked you about basketball, the way he dropped his tennis bag and practically flew onto the street court like the world was finally off his shoulders...You’ll never forget that either.

He asks you, the next day, if you’ve played tennis and you have to shake your head no. It’s always been basketball for you. But as you teach him how to play, you notice how nimble he is, the silly way he tries to add an odd jump or some kind of acrobatics with that particular grin or sweet laugh of his. You don’t have the heart to tell him that that’s not allowed in basketball, so you find a way to compliment his speed and reflexes instead.

The grin you receive stays burned in your mind for a week.

-

Koganei, _Shinji_ your mind supplies, ends up being a ray of light in your life that you never know you needed. You think that all the people in your family are enough, but Shinji fits in like a missing corner piece in a puzzle. He’s always there with a smile, bursting with energy to brighten any mood, and when he drags you to join the Seirin basketball team, you can’t help but follow with a mirroring smile.

“I’m good enough to play now, eh, Mitobe?” It’s been about two months since you met in the park on the public courts, but it’s not like Shinji is bad at basketball. He’s a fast learner.

“That’s what I thought~,” Shinji continues, gently elbowing your side before you can even reply. This is a thing with him now, being able to guess your answers and not force you to talk and it’s sort of relieving.

He introduces you both to the other members of the team, tripping over basketball terms but doesn’t let it bother him. The others laugh and suddenly, you find yourself on a team that you feel surprisingly comfortable with already.

-

“I...Hey, Mitobe.”

You look over the table, over the spread out books and papers to see Shinji staring out the window. He looks strangely melancholy and you immediately decide it’s not a good look on him.

“You wanna go play tennis? I have an extra racket and there’s some courts down the street, I can teach you…” His words don’t carry the same energy they usually do and you make a soft noise of agreement.

You’ve seen the extra rackets in his room, the worn out tennis shoes under his bed, the medal folded carefully and hidden in the top drawer of Shinji’s desk. Besides, he sort of owes you in a way for teaching him basketball.

There’s a smirk on your face and then a hand is there, finger flicking your forehead.

“You offered to teach ME basketball!!! I owe you nothing, Mitobe!!”

You laugh and he laughs and by the time you finish laughing and wrestling, it’s too dark for tennis anyway.

Shinji waves you off home with a smile, of course, and you’re glad to see his eyes are here in the present once again.

-

The day you actually have no practice, Shinji corners you with an old racket carefully wrapped with new grip tape and it fits perfectly in your hand.

“There’s no escaping now, Mitobe.” Shinji’s lips curl in the cutest way, and oh, that’s a new thing that’s been developing.

If you thought he was fast on the wooden floors in the gym, Shinji _soars_ on the tennis court. You’re immediately reminded of the early days, months ago, when you were teaching him basketball. The acrobatics suddenly make sense and you’re truly amazed at how talented Shinji is with tennis.

There’s a question on your lips, words tangled with your tongue, but seeing the smile as he pulls off another impressive backhand, you swallow them down with your pride as he continues to kick your ass, six games to none.

-

When you walk home, you pass a storage container and you swear that Shinji hesitates, but then it’s like he vanishes into thin air and is suddenly skipping ahead in front of you, yelling for you to catch up.

-

You continue playing tennis with each other when you have time, during the weekends and the off season of basketball, and you improve enough to at least take one game from Shinji. The courts remains weird to you, you feel too big when Shinji is small, darting around the singles boundaries like nothing. He still wins every time, and the victorious twirls of his racket at the end of every game only aggravate you a little bit.

It bothers you a bit (a lot), though. The joy that Shinji exudes on the tennis court. Because the moment he steps off, his light seems a little dimmer, his smile less wide. You never noticed before because you had never seen him on the tennis court. But now that you have, now that you know it's not the same not even on the basketball court...you can’t unsee it.

-

He treats you to a parfait one day and spends a long time trying to order his own. When your orders are taken, he leans on his hand, jiggling his leg a bit as he stares around the room. It’s nothing unusual, not with the adrenaline still running through you both from tennis. It was a long game and the last you’ll be able to play for a while because of basketball starting again, which you find is a little sad. 

Tennis isn’t too bad, it turns out.

“You know…” Shinji starts, still looking around the shop, eyes gaining that faraway look that you had only seen one time before.

“I used to play doubles. In middle school.” He sighs, moving his right hand so he can stare at it, curling his fingers into a fist. “I was pretty good. My partner was better than me, but together we-”

He’s cut off by the parfaits arriving and food distracts you both. It’s not until later that you realize that Shinji never finished his story. You stare at your phone for a good hour, trying to craft a text to tell him to continue, that you’re curious, that you hate seeing that faraway look in his eyes, that you’ll play tennis with him anytime as long as he plays basketball with you.

You want to ask him why.

Your phone drops on your chest as you fall asleep before hitting send.

-

“Tennis? Isn’t that Koga’s thing?” Izuki asks you, eyebrow raised. You shrug, because it’s true, but you need more people for this.

“No.” Riko states, not even bothering to look up from her practice outline.

“Uh, um.” Hyuuga stares at you a little flustered. “Did you know I played tennis when I was younger? What is this…”

“Of course!” Kiyoshi replies with an easy smile. You knew he would agree but his next words (“Can I play with my grandfather's badminton racket?”) make you wonder if you should have tried to convince Izuki a little more.

-

“Hey, Mitobe! You busy Saturday? After practice, I mean.”

It hurts to deny Shinji, especially the pout he gives you, but you’ve been planning this for so long, you’re not giving in now.

You just hope Kiyoshi remembers to call Shinji in time.

-

The court is thankfully empty when you arrive, and you set to stretching immediately since you forget to stretch your legs after basketball practice.

Hyuuga arrives next, dressed smartly in tennis gear, racket and grip tape worn like he still plays every now and then. He sits next to you, like he’s expecting you to say something, but you just blink and go back to stretching.

Hiyoshi and Shinji arrive together, but you hear Shinji before you see him.

“-SO EXCITED that you want to play tennis! I’ve taught Mitobe as much as I can, but I really want to play doubles again, you know? I was a doubles player in middle school, so with you, we just need ONE more person…” Shinji enters the court and finally sees you and Hyuuga, and the shock on his faces worries you a bit.

But when everything sinks in, especially Hyuuga’s neon green tennis shorts, Shinji smiles, wide and bright, just like the first time you met him, and you know that you made the right decision.

-

It takes one game to realize why Shinji played doubles. It’s not that he wasn’t good at singles, he still beats you every time after all, but as he pairs up first with Kiyoshi (“It’s only fair, Hyuuga!! He doesn’t know how to play!” “That’s beside the point, Koga!”), you can see the imprinted, practiced comfort in his stance.

A few times, when you were playing singles with him, you’ve caught Shinji glancing backwards, like he was looking for something, for someone, but after a quick shake of his head, he was back looking at you and slamming a serve into your court.

Here, now, he’s smiling back at Kiyoshi, giggling as he lobs the ball past Hyuuga and smashes it between both your rackets after you return it. You and Hyuuga win the set, but only because Kiyoshi can’t serve and faulted all his service games.

You shuffle pairs, laughing a bit to yourself as Hyuuga tries to to show Kiyoshi how to serve and ends up just yelling at him when Kiyoshi serves into his face.

Shinji’s off the to side, fixing his shoes. You pick at your grip tape, not wanting to rush him, and when you look at him again, he’s leaning on his hand, staring at you with, what you think (what you hope) is a fond look. It squeezes your heart a bit and when Shinji jumps up and grabs your hand, you hope he can’t feel your heartbeat.

“Partner.” He says. “ _My_ Partner.”

There's something definite about his words and you swear it’s the sun and the early summer heat and the exercise making your face red. Shinji laughs, bright and loud again, your favorite, before shoving you to the back to the court.

“I used to specialize in netplay and I trust you enough to cover me.” He pauses again. “Partner.”

You’re more than flustered but take the back, definitely not at all distracted by Shinji leaning over, hands gripped around his racket, in the middle of the court.

“Serve, Mitobe!!” Hyuuga calls.

Shinji looks back at you, and there’s a moment of eye contact where you think, that maybe- just maybe--

You serve the ball and get your first service ace.

-

By the end, you think that you’ll never hear the end of Hyuuga’s complaints, saying over and over that you and Shinji obviously practiced doubles together and that this was a setup against their captain and that they’ll be running forever at practice on Monday.

Kiyoshi tries to comfort him by suggesting a badminton rematch but that makes Hyuuga even angrier.

This time, when Shinji steps off the court, his smile stays just as wide as it was on the court.  
-

As the sunsets, you walk home side by side with Shinji, shoulders occasionally brushing.

The word “partner” still echoes in your mind and it would be so easy to reach out, to grab his hand, to say what you think that word means. But, as usual, Shinji beats you to it, grabbing your hand and lacing your fingers together.

“We won nationals. In my 3rd year.” Shinji isn’t looking at him, staring at the road in front of them instead. “It was the best moment of my life, we were the top of Japan, the best middle school doubles pair. But, ah-”

You gently squeeze his hand and get a smile and squeeze in return.

“He wanted to go to a different high school. I asked him if he would still play tennis, if there was a chance that we might meet again after high school and…” He drifts off and you let him. There’s no rush. You don’t need to know now, you don’t need to know ever, but you’re more than happy to listen if he wants to talk.

“I lost my partner and my dream in the same day...but it was also day I met you, Mitobe Rinnosuke. You and basketball.” Shinji laughs and looks up at you. “I never thought I would find a new dream or even a new partner that fast, but here I am and here you are. You really saved me that day, you know?”

You want to say that he saved you, that he brought smiles and friends and light into your life, but you decide that you want to beat him to something for once.

As you gently kiss him, you can feel the cute curl of his lips and it tastes a little saltier than you expected, but that’s fine. It’s perfect.

He squeezes your hand again as you part and pulls you down the street, almost flying like he was on the tennis court.

Offhand, you wonder when his wings will spread in basketball, but there’s no rush. You both have an infinite amount of time left.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> TFW you ship Golden Pair hardcore and still write something like this...also, Hyuuga with neon green tennis shorts, /yes/


End file.
